THE DEVOURING

First CD I own by this band of long career (first album released in 1982), that hasn't got the recognition they deserve. I decided to start by The Devouring, considered to be one of their best albums. As some reviews said before, they do not centre in just one style, and mix Atomspheric and Electronic Music with Hard Rock, Metal, some psychedelia and old school keyboards. The result is an unique thing, that is even better because of the fresh, clever melodies into the music.

Sometimes you have layered, relaxing and atomspheric passages, and other times they let the hard riffs dominate the music, or a catchy melody. Groovy and intrincated rhythms take place in the music, with the always present, but well used, odd time signatures. The guitar is all around and makes a bunch of great solos, with lots of feeling (see the opener, for example), reminding of the great Gilmour (even the distortion). Guitar fans have a lot of great guitar work to dig on this record. The rhythm section is very solid and the bass takes the lead with some nice solos, in a couple of songs. Highlights are: the first breathtaking four songs, that mix with majesty heavy passages (and amazing riffs like on the opener Night Of The Mexican Goat Sucker), with the atomspheric layered mellow moments with Gilmourian guitar, Room 40 (it's been a long time since I hear such a beutiful chord progression as this one, dark, sad mellow, even frenetic at times), and Old Soldier's Diesase, which features an AMAZING guitar solo! It wasn't an easy listening album to me, BTW. It took several listens to fully appreciate this excellent work.

Overall, an enjoyable album from an unique band that aren't copycats of the dinosaurs, while taking influence from them. I'm definitely looking forward to more of their stuff.

Rating: 4.1/5